User operated drug delivery devices are as such known in the prior art. They are typically applicable in circumstances, in which persons without formal medical training, i.e. patients, need to administer an accurate and predefined dose of a medicinal product, such as heparin, insulin or the like. In particular, such devices have application, where the medicinal product is administered on a regular or irregular basis over a short-term or long-term period.
In order to accommodate with these demands, such devices have to fulfil a number of requirements. First of all, the device must be robust in construction, yet easy to use in terms of handling and in understanding by the user of its operation and the delivery of the required dose of medicament. The dose setting and dose dispensing must be easy, intuitive and unambiguous. Further, the device should be inexpensive to manufacture and unproblematic to dispose.
Such a pen-type injector is for instance generally illustrated in EP 1 913 967 A2. This drug delivery device comprises a dose display mechanism allowing the user to select multiple doses of an injectable drug and for dispensing of the set dosage of the drug and applying said drug to a patient.
Even though such known drug delivery devices provide easy and intuitive appliance, depending on their acquirements and skills, the end users of such devices may still require support in order to handle such drug delivery devices in a proper and safe way.
Typically, drug delivery devices are supplied together with an instruction manual, for that the user is capable to inform itself about the functionality and features of the respective drug delivery device. In practice, such instruction manuals may easily get lost, in particular during a long-term use of refillable or reusable drug delivery devices. In such cases, where the instruction manual for the device or other device- or medicinal product-related information is untraceable, the risk of inappropriate handling of the drug delivery device increases. Any such inappropriate handling may imply an inappropriate and incorrect setting and dispensing of a dose, with e.g. serious consequences for the user or patient.
This endangerment even increases in such circumstances, where the patient has to deal with a plurality of different types of drug delivery devices or in cases, where a person other than the patient has to administer a predefined dose.